Strava has become such an integral part of many cyclists' routine that it's easy to forget the site has been around for less than eight years. Strava launched on 18 August 2009, with a grand total of 50 activities shared on its first day.

One month later, that number increased to 8,572 activities, and after Strava's first full year, athletes shared 99,994 activities. And this week, Strava celebrates a major milestone: the one billionth activity shared to the social network for athletes.

"We're excited to celebrate this milestone in our community's growth in recognition of the inspiration that these one billion activities have created for Strava athletes around the world," says incoming Strava CEO James Quarles.

Strava is available as a free download for iOS and Android.
Strava is available as a free download for iOS and Android.

Strava continues to grow apace, adding one million new members every 40 days, and athletes share an average of 1,382,138 activities per day on Strava. To date, athletes on Strava have covered 12,967,788,011 miles under their own power - the equivalent of 54,281 trips to the moon.

As the number of new athletes and shared activities soars, Strava also boasts rapidly rising engagement with 17 million feed views each day, 55 million comments and kudos each week, and 2.2 million photos uploaded per week.

And it's not just for cyclists and runners: Strava has expanded to include a wide range of activities, everything from kitesurfing to Nordic skiiing.

So now to the billion dollar question: what was the billionth activity - and who claimed the exclusive crown?

The milestone was set on Sunday 21 May by Patrick, a Strava athlete from Berlin, Germany, who uploaded an 1,850-metre swim that took 44 minutes and 25 seconds to complete.

"I'm getting ready to race a cross triathlon this summer. I haven't been in the pool for almost a year, so it was time to start swimming again," says Patrick. Fittingly, he titled the activity, 'Finally in the Pool Again.'

Kudos to Patrick.

And here's another interesting snippet for your next club ride: the very first activity shared on Strava was a bike ride from the Fountain de Valcluse in the south of France, completed on 12 April 2008, by one of Strava's first employees, Davis Kitchel. The 7.7-mile ride covered seven Strava segments - it seems safe to say Davis claimed the KOM on all of them.

And now the race is on to claim the two billionth activity. Let's make sure it's a cyclist...

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